In the past two years he and his laboratory have been visiting Saudi Arabia to work with collaborators on Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Work in the laboratory uses high resolution approaches such as sequencing, proteomics and machine learning to characterise samples from patients and models for disease and then use this data for functional analysis. He currently leads a major research program funded by the US FDA on severe coronavirus infections including MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. Julian is a co-opted member, as part of the COVID-19 response, of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) which advises the UK government on the threat posed by new and emerging respiratory viruses.